.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The Barry Stern exhibition in 1962 was Whisson's first solo show in Sydney and included a number of major works. Number 13 in the catalogue was Yellow Room (65 gns) which is now in the collection of Heide Park and Art Gallery. Rail Station, now in the Art Gallery of NSW, was probably number 26 (45gns). Interiors were an important part of Whisson's art at this time. Domestic Interior, 1964, is in the National Gallery of Australia.
'Whisson spent his formative years among the heavyweights of Melbourne's emerging Antipodeans, where he seems to have been thought of as a fringe listener. Although far from being contrived there is evidence, such as in Two Figures by the Sea (which was also in the 1962 solo exhibition) of a deliberate search originating from Sydney Nolan's simplified compositions; but this conflicted with an interest in the imagery of Albert Tucker...Yellow Room uses subject-matter similar to that which (Francis) Bacon was using at the time but in this successfull work there is no sign of any stylistic 'derivation'...Finally, although Whisson is labelled an Expressionist, the success of his work remains in an uncanny ability to keep personal feeling from his work (something Bacon always wanted to achieve but failed to do). When this is done the images float as the unresolved images of a community psyche. Only when social and ethnic aspects start to have relationship to the spiritual does imagery appear to have solid reference. In this way Whisson's images might even be the end or start of iconic cultural structure but, as they know no dimensions, they are not likely to say.' (K Looby, Art & Australia, April 1976)
In Blue Interior, personal feeling and interconnectedness are still largely absent. Yet, ideas of awkwardness, sexual transaction and illicitness, remain at the centre of the image. The phallic shadow on the left and the double entendre of the title heighten these ideas.
'Whisson spent his formative years among the heavyweights of Melbourne's emerging Antipodeans, where he seems to have been thought of as a fringe listener. Although far from being contrived there is evidence, such as in Two Figures by the Sea (which was also in the 1962 solo exhibition) of a deliberate search originating from Sydney Nolan's simplified compositions; but this conflicted with an interest in the imagery of Albert Tucker...Yellow Room uses subject-matter similar to that which (Francis) Bacon was using at the time but in this successfull work there is no sign of any stylistic 'derivation'...Finally, although Whisson is labelled an Expressionist, the success of his work remains in an uncanny ability to keep personal feeling from his work (something Bacon always wanted to achieve but failed to do). When this is done the images float as the unresolved images of a community psyche. Only when social and ethnic aspects start to have relationship to the spiritual does imagery appear to have solid reference. In this way Whisson's images might even be the end or start of iconic cultural structure but, as they know no dimensions, they are not likely to say.' (K Looby, Art & Australia, April 1976)
In Blue Interior, personal feeling and interconnectedness are still largely absent. Yet, ideas of awkwardness, sexual transaction and illicitness, remain at the centre of the image. The phallic shadow on the left and the double entendre of the title heighten these ideas.